Donna Edwards = Maryland's Ned Lamont

Posted by Don Hazen at 8:59 AM on August 25, 2006.

Under the media radar, a huge struggle is going on on Maryland's 4th Congressional District where progressive activist Donna Edwards is challenging the machine of pro-war Bush Democrat Al Wynn.

It is brutal, as the campaign moves to the September 12th primary. Recently an Edwards campaign volunteer was beat up and two Wynn campaign workers were detained. (Check out VIDEO of the attack aftermath to the right.)

The violent incident happened just prior to a debate sponsored by the NAACP where, by all accounts, Donna clobbered Wynn, further putting him on the defensive.

Matt Stoller writes at MyDD:

"During the debate, Edwards just crushed Wynn on his votes for the war, the energy bill, the bankruptcy bill, etc. Wynn is clearly a terrible Congressman, one of the biggest villains on net neutrality. What the debate proved is that he's also a terrible politician who has maintained his seat in Congress through a mixture of fear, machine politics, and voter apathy."

This race, like the Lamont effort against Lieberman represents the heart and soul of the struggle to fight back against the right wing fear machine. As Stoller writes in a follow up analysis:

"Democrats, Republicans, journalists, scholars, and educators get annoyed, harrassed, attacked, or threatened if they do something that the right-wing doesn't like. The reactionary right has built a structure where the press self-censors, politicians discount left-wing options before even broaching them, and activists assume Democrats will lose before the elections have happened."

"We're holding people accountable for not following popular progressives principles. We're holding our friends accountable, and our opponents accountable, because accountability is not about partisan politics. It's about being strong, principled, and professional in how we organize our society."

"Donna Edwards. has a long track record as a progressive activist, and she's managed to patch together a workable campaign without the self-financing capacity of a Lamont or the genius of a Tom Swan. She has gotten some traction because she destroyed Wynn in the debate, and the press has finally done reporting on her challenge."

Don Hazen is the executive editor of AlterNet.